UNB Fredericton Is Training The Next Generation Of ‘Data Wizards’ Shaking Up The Finance Industry
FREDERICTON – The newest generation of analytical whizzes shaking up the investment industry isn’t your traditional portfolio managers.
They’re called quantitative analysts — quants for short — and they’re the data wizards that spend their days parsing and manipulating data on a massive scale.
Their work with high-level data means they can uncover patterns that are all but invisible in traditional investment research. And those skills mean they’ve quickly become essential members of every serious investment management team.
In Canada, UNB is on the cutting edge of modern quantitative analysis training. Its Master in Quantitative Investment Management (MQIM) program was the first of its kind in Canada and has been graduating qualified quants since 2019.
Jon Spinney is the Chief Investment Officer at Vestcor and one of the instructors at UNB’s MQIM program.
He says the investment management industry has undergone “a rapid shift” over the past few years, “with a significant proliferation of new alternative data and analytical techniques coming out of machine learning and computer science.”
At Vestcor, he says, the feeling was many of the traditional quantitative finance programs were slow to adapt to the change. A program with a fresh design that was mindful of the changing landscape would produce graduates better suited to this new landscape.
“The industry has been evolving rapidly and we’re all hungry for grads that have the skillsets that are now essential in the industry,” he says.
It’s part of why the firm partnered with UNB Fredericton to help create UNB’s MQIM program, which combines course work in finance, analytics, and computer programming with industry-led, hands-on training that prepares graduates for careers as quants.
Justin Jiaji Feng is a graduate of the program who now works as an investment associate at Vestcor.
Feng says he was drawn to quantitative analysis because he likes systematically attacking an issue and coming up with a unique insight that no one else has ever landed on.
Part of what he appreciated about UNB’s MQIM program was how tightly the coursework was connected to “actual quantitative investing.”
“Instead of just trying to make sense from a mathematical formula or program, everything served the purpose of actually helping me learn how to do quantitative investment. Everything we tried was really connected to what industry is actually using,” he says.
Over the course of the one-year, intensive program, Feng was a part of several competitions and even had professional development training.
He also says he liked the fact that he built up a broad base of knowledge over the course of the program.
“It’s really a program that combines quite a few different subjects and disciplines, which I think makes it a good program to prep students for whatever direction they plan to take in their career,” Feng says.
Feng doesn’t even consider himself especially proficient at math but says the UNB program prepared him for a career as a quant better than he could have imagined.
It allowed me to step right into this job I really enjoy. It’s challenging, it’s very satisfying in terms of achieving my career goals and professional development. I think all this happened thanks to the program,” says Feng.
Spinney, meanwhile, says demand for quants will likely only increase in a data-saturated modern world. Every major investment firm and pension plan is recruiting them, he says, and he believes UNB grads are especially well poised to land those jobs.
“The industry has been evolving rapidly and we’re optimistic that the UNB program is well situated to produce grads that have the skillset that investors like Vestcor and the large Canadian pension plans will need going forward,” he says.
More information about UNB’s Master in Quantitative Investment Management (MQIM) Program is available on the university’s website, or by clicking here.
Banner photo: Jon Spinney, the Chief Investment Officer at Vestcor, and Justin Jiaji Feng, a graduate of the UNB MQIM program and an investment associate at Vestcor. Image: Cameron Fitch/UNB Media Services.